high memory versus alsa drivers

high memory versus alsa drivers

[Chuck Hallenbeck]

I just added 1 GB of memory to my 256 MB system, which ought to give me
1280 MB of ram. The bios detects that much with no problem. However, in
order for Linux to access more than about 900 MB, I had to recompile the
kernel (2.4.26) after selecting "highmem" in the configuration step.
That did the trick okay, but guess what? My alsa drivers will not work
of highmem is selected. They squeal, squeak, snap, crackle,. and pop
instead of making nice sounds.

Does anyone have highmem selected with the alsa drivers working okay? If
so, what's the secret?

Oh, this is a Slackware 10.0 distro, and the 2.4.26 kernel is the
default speakup enabled kernel included with the distribution. The alsa
version is 1.0.5.


Thanks for any ideas.

Chuck


-- 
The Moon is Waning Crescent (21% of Full)
Home page at http://www.mhcable.com/~chuckh
Speakfreely address 24.105.197.112:2074

Re: high memory versus alsa drivers

[Igor Gueths]

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Hash: SHA1

Hi there. Not sure how much help I'm going to be, since I'm running 2.6.6 (however using memory management, since I have 1GB in this machine). How much memory is in use when you end up loading 
the Alsa drivers? Reason I ask is bc if you only are using about 300MB at the time, there's no real reason that I can think of as to why highmem would be used. 
On Sat, Oct 09, 2004 at 10:16:28AM -0400, Chuck Hallenbeck wrote:
> I just added 1 GB of memory to my 256 MB system, which ought to give me
> 1280 MB of ram. The bios detects that much with no problem. However, in
> order for Linux to access more than about 900 MB, I had to recompile the
> kernel (2.4.26) after selecting "highmem" in the configuration step.
> That did the trick okay, but guess what? My alsa drivers will not work
> of highmem is selected. They squeal, squeak, snap, crackle,. and pop
> instead of making nice sounds.
> 
> Does anyone have highmem selected with the alsa drivers working okay? If
> so, what's the secret?
> 
> Oh, this is a Slackware 10.0 distro, and the 2.4.26 kernel is the
> default speakup enabled kernel included with the distribution. The alsa
> version is 1.0.5.
> 
> 
> Thanks for any ideas.
> 
> Chuck
> 
> 
> -- 
> The Moon is Waning Crescent (21% of Full)
> Home page at http://www.mhcable.com/~chuckh
> Speakfreely address 24.105.197.112:2074
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

- -- 
Failure is not an option, it comes bundled with your Microsoft product.
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Re: high memory versus alsa drivers

[Chuck Hallenbeck]

Hi Igor,

Without highmem selected, /proc/meminfo tells me I have a total of
904276 KB of ram, and I get this message in my boot up log:

Warning only 896MB will be used.
Use a HIGHMEM enabled kernel.
896MB LOWMEM available.

With highmem selected, I show the full 1280 MB and do not get that
warning, but the alsa drivers produce only squeals and squawks.

Chuck


On Sat, 9 Oct 2004, Igor Gueths wrote:

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Hi there. Not sure how much help I'm going to be, since I'm running 2.6.6 (however using memory management, since I have 1GB in this machine). How much memory is in use when you end up loading
> the Alsa drivers? Reason I ask is bc if you only are using about 300MB at the time, there's no real reason that I can think of as to why highmem would be used.

-- 
The Moon is Waning Crescent (21% of Full)
Home page at http://www.mhcable.com/~chuckh
Speakfreely address 24.105.197.112:2074

Re: high memory versus alsa drivers

[Kenny Hitt]

Hi.  I'm sure you already did this, but did you re-compile your alsa
modules?

Probably not helpful, but I had to ask.
          Kenny

On Sat, Oct 09, 2004 at 10:16:28AM -0400, Chuck Hallenbeck wrote:
> I just added 1 GB of memory to my 256 MB system, which ought to give me
> 1280 MB of ram. The bios detects that much with no problem. However, in
> order for Linux to access more than about 900 MB, I had to recompile the
> kernel (2.4.26) after selecting "highmem" in the configuration step.
> That did the trick okay, but guess what? My alsa drivers will not work
> of highmem is selected. They squeal, squeak, snap, crackle,. and pop
> instead of making nice sounds.
> 
> Does anyone have highmem selected with the alsa drivers working okay? If
> so, what's the secret?
> 
> Oh, this is a Slackware 10.0 distro, and the 2.4.26 kernel is the
> default speakup enabled kernel included with the distribution. The alsa
> version is 1.0.5.
> 
> 
> Thanks for any ideas.
> 
> Chuck
> 
> 
> -- 
> The Moon is Waning Crescent (21% of Full)
> Home page at http://www.mhcable.com/~chuckh
> Speakfreely address 24.105.197.112:2074
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: high memory versus alsa drivers

[Chuck Hallenbeck]

Hi Kenny,

Prior to kernel 2.4.26, I used to have to do that after every recompile
that involved a change of modules, but with 2.4.26 the alsa drivers
compile with the kernel, evidently. They are loading okay. The output of
lsmod is identical with and without highmem selected, and all the alsa
components are there, same sizes and dependencies.

Oh -- there is one additional line in the lsmod output when highmem is
selected. It is "agpgart" and I am not familiar with that piece.

Chuck




-- 
The Moon is Waning Crescent (21% of Full)
Home page at http://www.mhcable.com/~chuckh
Speakfreely address 24.105.197.112:2074

Re: high memory versus alsa drivers

[Kenny Hitt]

Hi.  The agpgart modules is used so programs can access the video card
on the AGP bus.  I haven't seen the alsa modules get automatically
compiled before, so that must be something specific to Slackware.  Like
I said, my idea probably wasn't helpful but I had to ask just in case.
I have another idea which probably won't be helpful either.  In the past
with my older sound cards and earlier Alsa, I remember an option to tell
the driver to reserve DMA in low memory.  Don't know what card you have
or if the option has changed, but it might be something to look for in
the docs for the alsa drivers.

Good luck figuring it out.
          Kenny
	  
On Sat, Oct 09, 2004 at 11:45:01AM -0400, Chuck Hallenbeck wrote:
> Hi Kenny,
> 
> Prior to kernel 2.4.26, I used to have to do that after every recompile
> that involved a change of modules, but with 2.4.26 the alsa drivers
> compile with the kernel, evidently. They are loading okay. The output of
> lsmod is identical with and without highmem selected, and all the alsa
> components are there, same sizes and dependencies.
> 
> Oh -- there is one additional line in the lsmod output when highmem is
> selected. It is "agpgart" and I am not familiar with that piece.
> 
> Chuck
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> The Moon is Waning Crescent (21% of Full)
> Home page at http://www.mhcable.com/~chuckh
> Speakfreely address 24.105.197.112:2074
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: high memory versus alsa drivers

[Chuck Hallenbeck]

I appreciate your suggestions, Kenny. The card is an sb-live pci card.
Slackware uses stock kernels without any Slackware specific patches, so
I doubt this problem is distro specific. I could be wrong about that
recompiling thing I suppose, but the config file sure looks like it to
me. I am a little uncertain how to handle the more traditional alsa
packages now that alsa seems integrated into the kernel, but I guess I
could always grab the latest tarballs and start from scratch compiling
and installing alsa using a kernel with highmem selected.

Chuck

On Sat, 9 Oct 2004, Kenny Hitt wrote:

> Hi.  The agpgart modules is used so programs can access the video card
> on the AGP bus.  I haven't seen the alsa modules get automatically
> compiled before, so that must be something specific to Slackware.  Like
> I said, my idea probably wasn't helpful but I had to ask just in case.
> I have another idea which probably won't be helpful either.  In the past
> with my older sound cards and earlier Alsa, I remember an option to tell
> the driver to reserve DMA in low memory.  Don't know what card you have
> or if the option has changed, but it might be something to look for in
> the docs for the alsa drivers.
>
> Good luck figuring it out.
>          Kenny
>
> On Sat, Oct 09, 2004 at 11:45:01AM -0400, Chuck Hallenbeck wrote:
>> Hi Kenny,
>>
>> Prior to kernel 2.4.26, I used to have to do that after every recompile
>> that involved a change of modules, but with 2.4.26 the alsa drivers
>> compile with the kernel, evidently. They are loading okay. The output of
>> lsmod is identical with and without highmem selected, and all the alsa
>> components are there, same sizes and dependencies.
>>
>> Oh -- there is one additional line in the lsmod output when highmem is
>> selected. It is "agpgart" and I am not familiar with that piece.
>>
>> Chuck
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> The Moon is Waning Crescent (21% of Full)
>> Home page at http://www.mhcable.com/~chuckh
>> Speakfreely address 24.105.197.112:2074
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Speakup mailing list
>> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
>> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

-- 
The Moon is Waning Crescent (20% of Full)
Home page at http://www.mhcable.com/~chuckh
Speakfreely address 24.105.197.112:2074

Re: high memory versus alsa drivers

[Kenny Hitt]

Oopse, didn't realize you are using a 2.6 kernel.  Forget what I said
about modules not getting compiled when you build the kernel.

Teach me to reply without thinking.

          Kenny
	  
On Sat, Oct 09, 2004 at 01:50:47PM -0400, Chuck Hallenbeck wrote:
> 
> I appreciate your suggestions, Kenny. The card is an sb-live pci card.
> Slackware uses stock kernels without any Slackware specific patches, so
> I doubt this problem is distro specific. I could be wrong about that
> recompiling thing I suppose, but the config file sure looks like it to
> me. I am a little uncertain how to handle the more traditional alsa
> packages now that alsa seems integrated into the kernel, but I guess I
> could always grab the latest tarballs and start from scratch compiling
> and installing alsa using a kernel with highmem selected.
> 
> Chuck
> 
> On Sat, 9 Oct 2004, Kenny Hitt wrote:
> 
> >Hi.  The agpgart modules is used so programs can access the video card
> >on the AGP bus.  I haven't seen the alsa modules get automatically
> >compiled before, so that must be something specific to Slackware.  Like
> >I said, my idea probably wasn't helpful but I had to ask just in case.
> >I have another idea which probably won't be helpful either.  In the past
> >with my older sound cards and earlier Alsa, I remember an option to tell
> >the driver to reserve DMA in low memory.  Don't know what card you have
> >or if the option has changed, but it might be something to look for in
> >the docs for the alsa drivers.
> >
> >Good luck figuring it out.
> >         Kenny
> >
> >On Sat, Oct 09, 2004 at 11:45:01AM -0400, Chuck Hallenbeck wrote:
> >>Hi Kenny,
> >>
> >>Prior to kernel 2.4.26, I used to have to do that after every recompile
> >>that involved a change of modules, but with 2.4.26 the alsa drivers
> >>compile with the kernel, evidently. They are loading okay. The output of
> >>lsmod is identical with and without highmem selected, and all the alsa
> >>components are there, same sizes and dependencies.
> >>
> >>Oh -- there is one additional line in the lsmod output when highmem is
> >>selected. It is "agpgart" and I am not familiar with that piece.
> >>
> >>Chuck
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>--
> >>The Moon is Waning Crescent (21% of Full)
> >>Home page at http://www.mhcable.com/~chuckh
> >>Speakfreely address 24.105.197.112:2074
> >>
> >>_______________________________________________
> >>Speakup mailing list
> >>Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> >>http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >Speakup mailing list
> >Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> >http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
> 
> -- 
> The Moon is Waning Crescent (20% of Full)
> Home page at http://www.mhcable.com/~chuckh
> Speakfreely address 24.105.197.112:2074
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: high memory versus alsa drivers

[Janina Sajka]

Chuck, I doubt it's that simple. My IBM Thinkpad T30, when I still had
it, had 1 Gb RAM and was perfectly happy running alsa with various
kernels. In fact, I regularly ran two separate alsa devices on it, one
via the on board AC97 chips, the other via a pcmcia interface to an
external box.

I'm sorry I can't give you better direction, but I think there's more to
this.

Chuck Hallenbeck writes:
> I just added 1 GB of memory to my 256 MB system, which ought to give me
> 1280 MB of ram. The bios detects that much with no problem. However, in
> order for Linux to access more than about 900 MB, I had to recompile the
> kernel (2.4.26) after selecting "highmem" in the configuration step.
> That did the trick okay, but guess what? My alsa drivers will not work
> of highmem is selected. They squeal, squeak, snap, crackle,. and pop
> instead of making nice sounds.
> 
> Does anyone have highmem selected with the alsa drivers working okay? If
> so, what's the secret?
> 
> Oh, this is a Slackware 10.0 distro, and the 2.4.26 kernel is the
> default speakup enabled kernel included with the distribution. The alsa
> version is 1.0.5.
> 
> 
> Thanks for any ideas.
> 
> Chuck
> 
> 
> -- 
> The Moon is Waning Crescent (21% of Full)
> Home page at http://www.mhcable.com/~chuckh
> Speakfreely address 24.105.197.112:2074
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Chair
				Accessibility Workgroup
				Free Standards Group (FSG)

janina@freestandards.org	Phone: +1 202.494.7040